Chapter 20

All too soon it was into March and another statement. The older albums were fading, but ‘The Magic Laptop’ had nearly reached gold status in its first month. Willow’s share ended up at just on four hundred and twenty thousand, keeping the twenty thousand with Peter and transferring four hundred thousand to WR Holdings.

At school, they had finished the segment on film music, and were now on the weirdly named ‘Baroque and Roll’, with one session on baroque music and the next to be rock and roll. In March, they had another two sessions with the oratorio, now into the second third after the seven sessions. The third week of March was revision time, and the fourth was exam week. That was also the last week of the first university term, with Willow having been given the project to do before they had another lecture.

The band had spent a couple of Saturdays at the Summer Love Studio, just getting back into the groove with, basically, the Berlin show with a few extra earlier songs at the beginning, seeing that these were totally new audiences. They all finished early on the last Friday at school, went home to collect their luggage, and then were picked up by coach to go to the airport.

They were checked into their Madrid hotel before midnight and slept late on Saturday. There was a media session after breakfast, lunch, and then a trip to the stadium for a sound-check. The set-up was much the same as they had been used to, with the big stage and huge screens either side. Saturday night, they got themselves ready while the locals did their best, and then went on to blow everybody’s mind. Sunday, they were flown to Rome, and Monday night they did what they did best. Tuesday, they flew to Athens, rocking the Olympic Stadium on Wednesday evening.

Willow had taken her uni laptop, and, when possible, worked on her project. They had a day in Athens, visiting the historical sights, and flew home on Good Friday, the five of them going to London while the others went back to Manchester. After clearing the airport, they boarded a minibus, ordered on-line, into the city and the apartments. They had dinner in the restaurant, and then went up to their rooms for a good sleep. It had been a successful, but exhausting, trip.

Over the rest of the time in London, the two couples went out exploring, while Willow worked on her project. It involved a fictional company that had relocated to better offices and had run into a cash-flow problem. The question was if it should shed staff to save money or do something different. There was enough financial and staff information to be able to consider the answer. Willow spent some time in the Senate Library to look at the laws surrounding staff layoffs, and then wrote out her project essay, with some staff being relocated to the manufacturing base, where they would be more hands-on, and actually boosting production with the leasing of a new production line. Space saved in the new offices could be used to house a better sales team.

When that had been saved to a USB stick, with pages of graphs and projections, she took it with her on the Thursday to submit it and take the exam. On the Friday, she was able to spend time with the others, with them all walking to the British Museum for the day. On Saturday, the laundry bags were filled with sheets and pillowcases, then left with Carlo. They had lunch in the restaurant with the other two couples and loaded up the minibus when it arrived to take them home.

Willow was the last to be dropped off, so she gave the driver a good tip and took a card to call if they ever needed to be taken around. She took her things into the house and hugged her parents.

“Good trip, love?”

“It was, Mum. We played to full houses in all three places, and I was able to use my free time on my project. I finished it when we stayed in London, and the others went sight-seeing. It was a good break after the tour.”

After she had put things in the laundry basket and packed away unworn clothes, she sat at her desk and opened up her usual computer, seeing a message from Peter with another statement.

The older albums were fading away, but the new ones were doing well. Nothing was included about the tour. The albums had sold six hundred and thirty-five thousand copies, and the ‘Magic’ album had contributed three hundred and ninety thousand, going Gold. The DVDs had sold four hundred and eighty thousand copies, with the ‘Berlin’ one contributing three hundred thousand of those. Adding the merchandise and taking away the costs and commission, they each received four hundred and ninety thousand. She replied to Peter, asking him to transfer five hundred thousand to the WR Holdings account, which would bring that close to five million.

There was an email from Wilhelm, reporting that things were ticking over, and that he had only needed to look after a few niggling problems with the two properties. The Leicester one still had no other tenants, and he wondered what they intended to do with it. Willow started to think about buying it for herself. Or, as an alternative, do some soundproofing and using the bigger shed as a rehearsal space, resurfacing the end of the long shed for car parking. There was still a shed in the carpark which they didn’t use, and that she would get taken away if it was up to her. She replied to Wilhelm, adding the others, with her thoughts on changes.

Sunday, they went to the church to listen to Jim on the organ. He was becoming quite fluid with his playing. Afterwards, they went over to the club with Maisie and Gina and stayed for lunch. Rick and Racheal came in, with little Rebeccah in her carry basket. Rick told them about the situation with the Hikers.

“That was a terrible situation in Spain. We were stuck without Alex on stage. The rest of the tour was cancelled and the rest of us came home. The tour lost some money, which we had to cover out of savings to save face. We’ve been auditioning for a new guitarist, but they’re not behind every tree in Coventry. Not good ones, anyway. Alex was given jail time for possessing drugs, even if it was mostly baking powder. He won’t be back in the band, so we’re looking at a new album without him as a new start. We’re thinking of a name change to just ‘The Hikers’.”

“That sounds positive, Rick. How’s the farming going?”

“We’re on track with laying the groundwork for sustainable crops, so that we can sit back and let casuals do the actual work. Rach has been brilliant with her knowledge. The income from the previous albums has given us a decent cash situation, so, as far as we’re concerned, it’s all good. Not so good for Jacob, though. We hear that he’s been a problem in the clinic, tried to leave a couple of times, once where he was found in an area that’s notorious for dealers. The clinic always goes to those places first. Not that he could buy any, as he has no money in his pocket, but dealers will often offer a credit on those they know have a good bank balance.”

“We had an email from Wilhelm, and he sounded a bit curt about that, just details about the syndicates, without anything else. It must be hard on him and Rosalie.”

“At least they don’t have to cope with the farm on top of this. That Anita had a history of drug use, being suspended from school when she was thirteen for cannabis use. She had been on hard drugs since she was sixteen. It’s a pity that she got her claws into Jacob. He had such a future ahead of him. I play the DVD that they recorded at the Proms and see him play so beautifully. It’s so sad to watch.”

When they had left, Willow and Gina went outside and sat on the bench near the church. After a while of silence, Gina put her hand on Willow’s shoulder.

“Remember when we first sat on this bench and none of this had ever happened. I wonder what would life had been like if we hadn’t become friends.”

“Too hard to think about, friend. We wouldn’t be rich and famous, I wouldn’t have dragged Jacob into see Howard Bamborough, and you wouldn’t be on your way to being a piano superstar. Even with all the bad things, I don’t think that I would change a thing.”

“Nor me. Jacob could have gone down his own rabbit hole without the music. It may have been part of him that would have come out anyway, once he had enough money to experiment. Given the choice, I would have still embraced the future that we created. I love entertaining, and those last three shows we did were great. We were out there, without the rest of the bands, as ourselves, not just part of the Coventry Sound. I like your idea of creating a rehearsal space. With a lot more room, we could put together some dance steps. At the moment, we just stand and wiggle while making noise.”

“We would have to get a complete new set of equipment. It would be a pain to drag everything from one place to another.”

“Use your new skills to work out a way we can write it off as a business expense. It would round things out if you became our manager.”

“That’s a bit too early in the game! We’ll just have to continue making Peter rich. Actually, I had those thoughts about Leicester as if I owned the site. I have enough set aside to buy it from the syndicate. That would be good business, as the syndicate isn’t getting an income from it, so the cash could be used to buy into another leased site.”

“What would you value it at?”

“Well, we paid one and a quarter, and put the same into the studio, so I would guess that an offer of two and a half would be equitable.”

When Willow went home, she used her new knowledge thinking about Leicester. If she had the big shed soundproofed, and created more parking, she could apply to the council to convert the use to a full commercial studio. That would have less traffic than the distribution centre, and less employees. With the sound minimised, she couldn’t see that there could be any objection. Then, it could be advertised as the most up-to-date studio in the area, and also as a try-out space for bands preparing for shows, or even dance groups or drama groups to rehearse away from established theatres.

On Monday, it was back to school for the last term of her third year. After all the other assemblies she had attended, this one was almost boring. She had no uni lectures until the beginning of May, so was able to concentrate on her learning and getting the oratorio into shape. In the second week, the Music Studies moved into Minimalisation, thankfully being spared from listening to several minutes of silence. They explored Riech and Glass, Taverner and Nyman, Arvo Part and Sebelius. It opened up another avenue in Willow’s mind, but only for something solo, with thoughts returning to her ‘Fractured’ file with the MRI sounds.

The April raced by, with the band getting together to rehearse the ‘Fireworks’ album and getting Xavier in to record it on the last weekend of the month. She sent a copy to Jill and then they were into May.

On the second day of the month there was the next statement from Peter. The older CD sales were almost non-existent, but the later ones were selling well. The DVDs were the same. With merchandise, the total sales was just over five and a half million, with costs pulling it back to give each member four hundred and sixty thousand. The shows had grossed over twenty-seven million, due to the huge crowds. It would have been more, but the average ticket price was lower with the state of the economies in the countries they had visited. After paying for the stages, the other bands, the staff, the venue cut, the flights, hotels, food, Peter’s cut, and out-of-pocket expenses, each band member had received two point two-seven million, giving a total payment of over two point seven million. She got Peter to transfer two and a half million into the WR Holdings account, which would take it to seven and a quarter million.

With May came university lectures and more orchestra rehearsals. There were two before the half-year holidays, and they worked through to the finale of the piece. Willow told them that they had done well and would play the whole oratorio in the first week of June, and that the second and third week would have them playing the Messiah right through with the visiting singers.

“I will set up a recording session on the last Wednesday of June, and I’ll see if we can spend a half a day in the studio as it’s before revision week. The school performance is the Tuesday of the next week, with three performances in the Cathedral that weekend. After the summer holiday, we have the Messiah final rehearsal before playing in the Albert Hall on the Saturday. The ENO singers are all professionals, so I expect that they’ve done this before. The two rehearsals before the holiday should tell is if I’m right. If I’m wrong, we may need to set a rehearsal in the last week of the holiday.”

The last week before the half-term holidays brought Willow’s and Gina’s fifteenth birthdays. They had a simple evening in the club, not doing anything flash. They had agreed that they were beyond flash, so just had a dinner for lots of their relatives and friends, without a band, but with a big cake.

The week of the holidays was the netball competition in London. The two teams were taken there in a coach and put up in a hotel near the venue. They all had three sets of new uniforms; in case they made it into the finals. Monday and Tuesday, the third year played the four games of the round-robin, winning three and losing one, ending up in second place, with the first place being the team they had lost to. Their final was late in the afternoon of the next day. The other team also advanced to the finals.

Nobody could explain whether the other team thought that it would be a walk-over, or else they had gained something extra. The other school team lost their final, but Willow’s team won. They watched the finals of the older teams, mainly to see what they would be up against next year, seeing that they would all have to be a lot stronger by then. They came home after the presentations, with a new cup for the display cabinet. The other team had a smaller one for being second. That Friday, Willow went on-line to view the two lectures she had missed and make plenty of notes.

The last term of her third year started on the first of the month. The assembly lauded the winning netball team, and the Head got them all to stand. The Tuesday gym session was a party, with all the third-year students invited. The Head made a speech of congratulations for both teams, being first and second in their years in a National competition. On the Wednesday after school, the orchestra and singers played the complete ‘Creation’ for the first time, with the Head and a few teachers sitting in. The ensemble were now showing their professionalism, as it worked well.

The Head asked Mister Bamborough what was next, and he told her that they would have two weeks with the ENO and the Messiah, with a recording session of ‘Creation’ the week after, if she could allow them the time away from school. She nodded her head and told him that she would see to it.

The June statement was back to just sales, with each member getting four hundred and twenty-two thousand. Willow asked Peter to transfer four hundred and fifty thousand to WR Holdings.

On the Thursday, at lunch, she was given a note from Herb, asking if she could attend a meeting of the band, with her responsible adult, on Saturday afternoon, at the studio, to discuss the ongoing future of the syndicates. He did tell her that it was all good. That Saturday afternoon, Ashley drove her to the Leicester site. When they got there, they saw more cars than they thought. As they got out, Herb came over.

“Good, you were only a few minutes behind. We’re all here, so I’ll lock the gates and we can go through to the studio. It does have a great advantage by being a secure place to talk.”

He locked up and they followed him through to the studio, where they had set up some of the tables, with chairs around them. All the band were there with a parent, as well as Wilhelm, the estate agent and the accountant from Leicester that Wilhelm was using for operating the syndicates. After they had sat down, Herb stood.

“Thank you all for coming, today. I apologise for the cloak and dagger of the occasion, but I have asked you all here to talk about the future of our properties and of our two syndicates. Now, some weeks ago, Willow spoke to Gina about some things she had thought she could do if she owned the property here, and also emailed us all with those enhancements. Is that still your thoughts, Willow?”

“It is, Herb.”

“You valued the property, including the studio, at two and a half million. Are you still happy with that?”

“I am.”

“While we were talking, Nancy suggested that if she and I buy the first property we bought, and you bought this property, we could wind up the original syndicate. Then, we could have freedom to do something more with the larger syndicate of all ten of us, which currently owns the property at Small Heath. I think that we now have enough behind us to go for something substantial. Bryan has been doing some research and has found a shopping centre for sale in the outskirts of Manchester. It has thirty-five fully leased shops but needs some work to bring it up to date. He has spoken to the agent, who has estimated that the cost to bring it into this century is around fifteen million, and the purchase price is twenty-five million.”

There was an intake of breath at the size of the numbers.

“Now, Nancy and I are prepared to give five hundred thousand for the Coventry property, and if Willow pays two and a half for here, that will give the syndicate three million. If you add the million that is currently in the bank, we would all get six hundred and sixty-six thousand. What I suggest is that the ten of us then put four million into the big syndicate and our agent starts negotiations to buy the shopping centre. Do we have anybody against the idea?”

A couple of the parents wanted to know about the security of the investment, and the likely return. The estate agent told them that the usual return on a property of that size would be about two million a year, or around fifty thousand per shop, which neatly came in at a thousand a week. Depending on the leaseholders, there could be an extra charge for whole-of-centre advertising and security. Insurance would be high, but manageable.

For Willow, it was a good idea, something she had been mulling over, but not on this scale. The question not asked was if all of them had four million to spare. Most of them had left most of their money with Peter, so that wasn’t a problem. Only Willow had gone out and bought a property of her own. She had seven point seven now, so the two and a half would bring it back to five point two, and the return from the syndicate would put that at nearly five point nine, which would leave her at one point nine to have to do the changes here.

In the end of the discussion, everyone agreed with the way forward. The accountant and agent would draw up the contracts to sell the two properties to the individuals, and then the rest would happen after they went through, with the negotiations for the shopping centre starting soon.

On the way home, Willow told her father what she had planned. When they arrived home, Wendy asked what had happened.

“Herb and Nancy have bought the Coventry factory, and Willow has bought Leicester.”

“And?”

“And then they’re going to wind up the original syndicate and put four million each into the other syndicate to spend forty million on a shopping centre in Manchester.”

“That part’s all right, but what is our daughter going to do with a site where the only thing of value is the studio? There are no tenants.”

“She told me that this made it perfect. She has plans to upgrade the big shed as a rehearsal area for music, dance, and plays. She will resurface the car park and the bit of the long shed they don’t use and apply to the council to get a commercial usage passed. Then, she has plans to hire it out. I agreed with her and told her that she was sneaky.”

“Sneaky! If she has total control, she can charge a thousand or more an hour. It could be a gold mine.”

They went to the club that night and listened to Jim on Sunday. Gina and Willow discussed the outcome from the previous day. Gina said that it would restrict how much she could spend on a chateau, so a villa may be the way forward. Jim also came into the club with them and spoke about G-Force.

“We’re all working hard to get a good enough score to go the next level in sixth form. Gerry has gone and auditioned with the Hikers and has told us that he’s going to take a year off to see if they can be a professional band. Geoff is talking about a wedding, with Zara being spoken to about recording a solo album with an orchestra. I think that I’ll be playing here, in the church, for some time to come.”

For Willow, the next two weeks included the rehearsals with the ENO. They both went very easily, and they were happy with another rehearsal before the Proms. Those weeks were the last ones of the current university term. She would have all summer to work on two projects that had been set. Or did, until there was an email from Jill, telling them that a tour had been arranged.

They would fly out of Manchester on the Saturday after school finished, playing two shows in Perth, then going to Adelaide for one show, Melbourne for two, Canberra for one, Sydney for two, Auckland for two, Brisbane for two, Tokyo for two and Seoul for two, before arriving home with nearly two weeks before school started again. A small crew from the BBC would be visiting her on Sunday, to film a short interview about her excitement in going to Australia, and to try and have Gina with her in the afternoon.

She compiled an email to Evelyn, to tell her that they were on their way. She said that they would have two shows in the Sydney Olympic Stadium, that can hold up to eighty thousand. The next day, she had a reply which thanked her for all the goodies that had been sent, and that they were all looking forward to seeing them on stage, for real.

This week, the Music Studies looked into the Tango, which caused some laughter when she was chosen to demonstrate the dance with Mister Jamieson. After school, there was no orchestra, because the Head had planned for them to have all day in the studio on the Thursday, with Xavier and the others coming. Willow asked Gina if she could create the sound of a continuo on a Nord Stage Three, having been playing one for a while. Gina said that she would look into it that night.

The next day, they were taken to Leicester by coach, with the bigger instruments and the music stands going in the truck. They had done this before, so the truck stopped outside the back door, and all the things were moved in, while most of the amps were moved out. With all the seats arranged, the tables set up in the workshop area, and everyone in their places, it didn’t take long for the microphones to be laid out, already having all the equipment on hand. Gina had reported that she could get the right sound from a Nord, so they left one speaker box and amp head next to the keyboard and left the continuo in the truck.

Before lunch, they had recorded the ‘Creation’. Willow paid for fifty pizzas to be delivered, and they spent a happy few hours recording various members of the orchestra, in trios, quartets and quintets, and six madrigals that the choir had been working on, with a small orchestra backing them. Then, the truck was loaded, and Xavier worked with producing enough of both sets for everyone and a few for the school. Mister Bamborough totally enjoyed that day, seeing a level of expertise among the orchestra that he hadn’t known before.

He sat with Willow on the coach back to Coventry.

“An interesting day, Willow. Some extra knowledge of what the other players get up to outside of school.”

“They are a talented bunch, sir.”

“None so talented as yourself, Willow. Gina told me about that ‘Fireworks’ album today, with all the classical hints, it was impossible to count.”

“That was the point, sir. That was the point.”

Marianne Gregory © 2025